Two Weeks with a Panasonic GX85

Today’s Post by Mark Toal

Once in a while I find a camera that is such a pleasure to use that it goes everywhere with me. And to me, size and ease of use are as important as image quality. Since I work for Panasonic I’m not going to review the new Lumix GX85—you can read my first impressions here— but I want to share why it’s my new carry everywhere camera.

My previous two favorite cameras were the Lumix LX7 and GX7. Both cameras fit in my hand perfectly and were light and small enough to always have with me. I like to talk long walks in the cities where I travel to for work so a camera needs to be light enough to carry for at least an hour.

Image quality is still important. The iPhone 6 in my pocket takes a great photo and is always competing for my attention. I find that the GX85 with the 12-32mm kit lens and the small 35-100mm lens cover almost everything I find to shoot.

I also like a camera to be small enough to hide under a baseball hat on the passenger seat of my car so it’s always available. The photo of the glass building at sunset was shot from my car window while I was at a stoplight. The image of the flour mill was shot at ISO 6400 from a windy, freezing balcony at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

Take a look at these photos that I shot in Minneapolis and then check out the GX85 when it hits stores next month. You can see more photos from my travels on my photo blog at: https://mtoallumiximages.wordpress.com/

Along with Barry Staver, Joe is co-author of Better Available Light Digital Photography that’s now out-of-print but new copies are available at collector (high) prices or used copies for giveaway prices—less than six bucks—from Amazon.